Racer
by Flame-san
Summary: In the Institute of Higher Living, the Flock encounters a winged girl. We see her briefly, and then never again. We never know her feelings, we never know why she feared Ari so much. Who was she? What happened after she left the Institute?


I never really found out who they were.

Sure, I saw them, talked to them. They let me out of my cage, even. Not in the metaphorical way, either. They saved my life when they found the Institute.

Every day of my life, I'd pushed on, never really knowing what was coming next, but hoping that someday I would be strong enough to get through to the end. There was no way I was going to let the scientists take me down. Even if I had to cut off my wings to do it.

Well, maybe not. My wings are my life. Some people feel about people like that, but whatever. I don't have anybody to care about right now. Those six, though, they cared about each other. Maybe they even cared about me a little? The girl cared. The blonde one, with the fiery eyes and the battle scars. When she saw us, stuffed in the cages, she let us free. How did she get there, I wonder? Why was she at the Institute, saving us? If she had a reason to be there, it wasn't for us, for me. None of them knew we were there. I asked her who she was, why she was setting us free.

"_Kids don't belong in cages."_

The fact that she never answered the first part of my question just makes me even more curious. She must have been an experiment, but nobody's escaped from the Institute, until she set us free. Who was she?

When Ari shows up, I can't help but be terrified. As tough as I try to be for the others, he's terrifying. Once in a while, he'll stop by, and there's a pink patch left on my body when he leaves. The only other one he ever beat like that was the kid I called Whimper, because that was all he ever did. Whimper had wings, too. We were the only ones, and he was a wreck.

Holding a dying mutant in my arms, I usher the others through the tunnel, towards safety. Behind me, I can hear the sounds of a fight. She'd handed the poor thing to me, and sent me off, after that wolf-man showed up and they started fighting. The girl had called him Ari. He'd called her Maximum. Maximum. There, I'd remembered her name.

She yells at someone to get "us" out of there, but I've already started directing the other mutants away. All I want is to get out of there.

One of the other kids who had come to rescue us gestures at me to come with him. He has short, dark hair, and his movements seem too graceful for this filthy tunnel. I shake my head, and focus on getting to the surface. He doesn't bother me again until we do.

The surface is no less ugly than the sewer, and a couple of the mutants cling to my hands. I stare at the black-haired boy as he stands in front of me, his face hard.

"You have to come with us."

"No."

He sighed, and ran a hand through his hair.

"If you're worried about these guys, we can get them to safety, but we have to wait for Max first."

Waiting? If we waited, someone might come, and then we'd have nowhere to run. I had to get these guys to safety. The kids who'd rescued us were older than me, they could take care of themselves. The mutants, though, they weren't safe at all. The longer we stayed on this… street, that was the word, the better the chances that another one of them would die.

"I can't go with you." I stuck out my chin and glared at him.

He glared back. "I'm not going to let you run off on your own, Max would kill me. You've got wings, right? Like us. You belong with us, kid."

They had wings, too? They had wings, and they were free to fly and strong enough to fight? The breath caught in my throat. So they were mutants. Beautiful, strong mutants that I admired. I wanted to go with them.

And yet…

"I'm not going with you. These guys need me. Yah, you guys can probably help, but not quick enough. I need to get these guys away from here. I need to get them to safety."

"So, I can take them to safety. You wait here." He crossed his arms across his chest, and glared at me.

I shook my head.

"No. You go with your friends. I can take care of these guys."

"You need to come with us."

"I can't."

"Please." His voice wasn't irritated anymore, and he was looking at me with some sort of concern. "You won't be able to survive alone."

I straightened my shoulders.

"I won't be alone."

He held my gaze for a few moments, then sighed, and pulled a few things from his pockets, handing them to me. I took the granola bars with a nod of thanks, and held them tightly.

The boy put one hand on my shoulder. He was a good food taller than me, but he managed to keep from looking imposing.

"Good luck out there..."

"Racer."

"Good luck, Racer. "

"Thanks."

He took his hand off of my shoulder, and I smiled at him before turning to the others and walking down the street. They followed me, and as we walked away, I didn't look back.

If I was meant to see them again, I would.

Until then, I was going to take care of these kids.


End file.
